Barbara Boxer’s Cap-and-Trade Energy Tax Won’t Work

What is Cap-and-Trade? Cap-and-Trade is a political scheme ostensibly aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions with the goal of reducing the global temperatures.

With a Cap-and-Trade law in place, the government would set a yearly greenhouse gas emission target (carbon dioxide is the most common man-made greenhouse gas, you are exhaling right it now) and would reduce that yearly ceiling over time.  This is the “Cap” of Cap-and-Trade.

The “Trade” part of this scheme comes in when the government (read: politicians) gives out greenhouse gas emission credits, valued at billions of dollars, to favored industries.  So, industries with greater credits than emissions would be able to sell their valuable credits (basically, a right to emit greenhouse gases) to those industries (such as the coal industry or the oil and gas industries) which would need the credits to stay in business.

Over time, the government makes money, commodities traders make money, such as those on the Chicago Climate Exchange (yes, it exists, they make money trading carbon dioxide credits), politically favored industries make money (such as those former Vice President Al Gore has invested over $100 million in), and the rest of us get hit with the bill – up to $2,000 per family per year of higher energy costs. Thus, Cap-and-Trade is actually a huge energy tax on working Americans.

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Tags: Al Gore, Barbara Boxer, cap-and-trade, carbon emissions, Chicago Climate Exchange
Posted Nov 25th 2009 at 10:37 am in Environment, Politics | 3687467 Commentshttp://biggovernment.com/cdevore/2009/11/25/barbara-boxers-cap-and-trade-energy-tax-wont-work/Barbara+Boxer%E2%80%99s+Cap-and-Trade+Energy+Tax+Won%E2%80%99t+Work2009-11-25+17%3A37%3A08Chuck+DeVore